Customizable, real time intelligence channel

ABSTRACT

A customizable intelligence channel may be uniquely designed and implemented to contain only that information deemed to be relevant and material to a specific topic. The topic-related information provided via the intelligence channel may contain no extraneous results, irrelevant, and/or redundant information. The intelligence channel may be dynamically updated in real time, based on user input and/or crowdsourced data, to provide topic-related information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The instant application claims priority to U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 61/776,587, filed Mar. 11, 2013. U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 61/776,587 is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION

A portion of the disclosure of this document may contain material thatis subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objectionto the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or thepatent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Officepatent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technical field generally relates to searching for and providinginformation, and more specifically relates to customizable provision ofinformation.

BACKGROUND

It is not uncommon, when researching an item of interest, to receiveunwanted, irrelevant, and/or redundant information, and/or to notreceive desired information. Conducting research via traditionalmechanisms may yield false positive results and/or results that areirrelevant to the research topic. Further, critical information may bemissed. For example, attempts to research a firm such as Cushman &Wakefield using the initials C&W may yield information directed to Cable& Wireless. Traditional searches for industry topics and companies mayfail due to ambiguity and/or due to unrelated activities of suchindustries/companies. For example, attempts to conduct research usingthe initials FDR may yield results regarding Fonciere des Regions andinformation regarding Franklin Roosevelt, such as things named in hishonor, including a memorial in Washington, D.C. and a highway in NewYork City. As another example, attempts to conduct research using thename Donald Trump may yield results regarding commercial real estate,politics, entertainment, and hairstyle articles.

SUMMARY

Customizable, real time information may be provided via intelligencechannels. To generate a channel, a topic may be determined. The topicmay be researched. A topic may comprise any appropriate topic. Keywordsand/or parameters may be determined based on the research. Sourcesassociated with the topic may be determined based at least in part onthe parameters. Queries may be conducted on each source utilizingrespective parameters. Results of the queries may be aggregated and/orfiltered to remove, for example, irrelevant information, duplicativeinformation, information lacking substantive content, profanity, or thelike, or any appropriate combination thereof. Filtered results may beassembled for delivery via a channel. A channel may comprise a hub-likeinterface. The interface may comprise a user-friendly interactivedisplay. A subscription management process may be implemented to trackuser interests, to refine a user's intelligence channel, to recommendadditional intelligence channels based on user and/or usagecharacteristics, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Aspects of a customizable, real time, intelligence channel are describedmore fully herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, in whichexample embodiments are shown. In the following description, forpurposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide an understanding of the various embodiments. However,the instant disclosure may be embodied in many different forms andshould not be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forthherein. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

FIG. 1 is flow diagram of an example process for generating acustomizable, real time, intelligence channel and providing informationvia the intelligence channel.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example process for intelligence channelpreproduction.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example process for intelligence channeldevelopment.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example process for aggregating,filtering, and quality testing.

FIG. 5 depicts an example interface comprising a plurality ofintelligence channels.

FIG. 6 depicts an example illustration of an intelligence channelinterface.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example interface for providing access to aplurality of intelligence channels.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example interface that provides topic relatedinformation pertaining to incubators.

FIG. 9 is an example functional block diagram for developing anintelligence channel.

FIG. 10 is an example block diagram of a system for generating anintelligence channel and providing information via an intelligencechannel.

FIG. 11 is an example block diagram of the updates processor.

FIG. 12 is an example block diagram of the data processor.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example apparatus that may be utilizedto implement and/or facilitate an intelligence channel.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example device that may be utilized togenerate and/or implement an intelligence channel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

A customizable, real time intelligence channel as described herein mayenable a user to keep apprised of, and/or deliver to others, selectedtopics by identifying and delivering relevant information culled from,for example, greater than hundreds of thousands of relevant sourceswhile filtering out irrelevant and/or redundant information. In anexample embodiment, an intelligence channel may provide the ability toidentify, isolate, and access the most reliable, relevant sources for atopic, and deliver a stream of targeted, focused information pertainingto the topic. A topic may comprise any appropriate topic, and is notlimited to any genre, category, or the like.

As described herein, an intelligence channel may be generated for atopic. The topic may be selected from predetermined topics, a topic maybe selected from topic already available online, a topic may be providedby a user, a topic may be provided by a user and defined and developedthrough an iterative process that defines search terms, keywords,includes and excludes, language recognition capability and predefinedfilters, a topic may be a specific topic, a topic may be a specifictopic for a specific user, or the like, or any appropriate combinationthereof. Topics may be determined in any appropriate manner. Forexample, predictive data mining based on a user's email address, socialgraph, prior history of search or use of an intelligence channel, or thelike, may be utilized to identify likely appropriate areas of interestand channels for the user.

In an example embodiment, predictive data mining may be utilized byidentifying a user's home location, and accessing publicly availableinformation to determine, for example, the income and interests ofpersons located in that area to predict interests of the user andrecommend an intelligence channel. Predictive data mining also may rely,in whole or part, on prior use characteristics of the user or othersrelated to the user by location, social media, or otherwise, to predictinterests of the user and recommend an intelligence channel. Predictivedata mining may be facilitated by the structure of a database, and theuse of open source tools for the database, such as, for example, an opensource non-SQL document database for big data analysis.

Sources of topic-related information may be determined in anyappropriate manner. For example, a source of topic-related informationmay comprise any appropriate source, such as, an online sourceaccessible via a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), social media, TWITTER,YOUTUBE, GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, YAHOO, BING, WIKIPEDIA, LINKEDIN, FLICKR,INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, a photograph, an image, a publication, a forum, ablog, a forum, a video, a periodical, a research facility, an academicsite, an industry specific site, a web site, a university, a feed, anRSS feed, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof. Asource(s) may be reviewed and the respective intelligence channelaccordingly may be updated, or curated, based on, for example,crowdsourcing data, research by the subject matter experts, input fromthe user, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof. Asource(s) may be reviewed periodically, aperiodically, responsive to arequest, responsive to an occurrence of an event, continuously, or thelike, or any appropriate combination thereof.

Sources may be searched for topic-related information. Search resultsmay be analyzed for redundant, irrelevant, immaterial, or the like,information. For example, search results may be analyzed for profanity,duplicate headlines, duplicate content, time wasters such as tweetsdealing with social comments rather than topic-related items ofinterest, posts that are not in the user's language, posts that are notin a designated language or languages, dead hyperlinks to uselessheadlines, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof. Analyzedsearch results may be filtered. Analyzed search results may be filteredto remove information from a source, remove a source, edit informationfrom a source, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof. Inan example embodiment, sources and/or the level of filtering may becontrolled by a user in real time, while topic-related information isbeing provided to the user. And filtered information may be refreshedand provided by the intelligence channel instantly, on demand. In anexample embodiment, filtering may comprise a flexible noise-cancelingalgorithm(s) which may be updated to limit future sources of noise basedon, for example, an analysis of usage and crowd sourced comments andinput. Filtering also may be based on crowd-sourced determinations ofauthority and reliability of sources or items, based on user statisticsand preferences.

FIG. 1 is flow diagram of an example process for generating acustomizable, real time, intelligence channel and providing informationvia the intelligence channel. The example process depicted in FIG. 1,and as described in detail herein, may comprise any appropriatecombination and/or sequence of channel preproduction (step 12), channeldevelopment (step 14), aggregating, filtering, and quality testing (step16), assembling information for delivery (step 18), providingtopic-related information (step 20), and updating contents of theintelligence channel (step 22).

FIG. 1 is described herein with reference to additional figuresproviding detail associated with each step depicted in FIG. 1. To thatgoal, as described above with reference to FIG. 1, channel preproductionmay be performed at step 12. And FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exampleprocess for channel preproduction comprising any appropriate combinationand sequence of determining a topic at step 24, topic data mining andresearch at step 26, and determining search criteria at step 28. Atopic, or topics, may be determined at step 24. A topic may be selectedfrom predetermined topics, a topic may be determined by a user, a topicmay be a specific topic, a topic may be a specific topic for a specificuser, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof. Topics may bedetermined in any appropriate manner. A topic may comprise, for example,a company, an industry, a person, a group of persons, an asset, realproperty, intellectual property, a stock, a subject, a political entity,a city, a state, a country, a fashion trend, an activity, an event, anidea, an invention, a work, or the like, or any appropriate combinationthereof. It is to be understood that there is no limitation on the typeof a topic. In an example embodiment, a topic may use Boolean searchexpressions combining multiple topics; including some aspect(s) of atopic while excluding others. A Boolean topic search logic may link often or more Boolean terms, despite limitations on the number of searchterms imposed by some search engines. It is to be understood however,that there is no limit on the number of terms included in a topicsearch.

Topic data mining and research may be performed at step 26. Anyappropriate information may be analyzed to determine and/or suggest atopic to the user. For example, a user's assets, email, social mediaaccounts, search engines, GOOGLE, BING, LINKEDIN, WIKIPEDIA, userprofile information, a web site, a company web site, a government website, an employer's web site, or the like, or any appropriatecombination thereof, may be utilized to determine a topic. Predictivedata mining may be utilized to identify likely appropriate areas ofinterest and channels for the user. In an example embodiment, predictivedata mining based on a user's email address may be utilized to identifylikely appropriate areas of interest and channels for the user. An emaildomain may be analyzed to identify an association, from whichinterest(s) may be determined. For example, it may be determined and/orinferred that a user with an @aol.com extension has had the emailaccount for a long time, but has not kept up with the times. As anotherexample, it may be determined and/or inferred that a name likejohndoe@gmail.com indicates an early adopter, or person@bakerlaw.comwould likely have an interest in legal-related information, or one withan @woodcock.com extension would have a particular interest in IP law.It may be determined and/or inferred that a user with an xxx.fr emailaddress may prefer information in the French language.

Search criteria may be generated, at step 28, to facilitate adetermination of potential topic-related sources. Search criteria may beinclusive or exclusive. Inclusive search criteria may be utilized tosearch for information containing the inclusive search criteria.Exclusive search criteria may be utilized to exclude informationcontaining the exclusive search criteria. Search criteria may comprise,for example, inclusive keywords, exclusive keywords, inclusive searchterms, exclusive search terms, inclusive search phrases, exclusivesearch phrases, inclusive queries, exclusive queries, informationindicative of a false positive search result, redundant information, orthe like, or any appropriate combination thereof. Search criteria may becombined using Boolean operators to query many sources with differingapplication programming interfaces (API's) and semantic requirements.The API's, versions, and semantic structure requirements associated withany source may be determined for each source from, for example, adatabase library.

As described above, with reference to FIG. 1, channel development may beperformed at step 14. And FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example processfor channel development comprising any appropriate combination andsequence of determining a source, or sources at step 30, implementingsearch criteria at step 32, performing a test search or searches at step34, determining a quality of results at step 36, removing a source frompotential sources at step 38, determining if other sources exist at step40, and determining a structure and format for search queries at step42.

A source, or sources, of topic-related information may be determined atstep 30. A source of topic-related information may comprise anyappropriate source, such as, for example, social media, TWITTER,YOUTUBE, GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, YAHOO, BING, WIKIPEDIA, LINKEDIN, FLICKER,INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, a photograph, an image, a publication, a forum, ablog, a forum, a video, a periodical, a research facility, an academicsite, an industry specific site, a web site, a university, a library,audio, radio, television, a feed, and RSS feed, or the like, or anyappropriate combination thereof. A source may include any dataaccessible in digital form through a URL, and may include non-textualdata such as that developed by sensors in buildings, homes, vehicles,appliances, and other monitoring devices and available digitally througha URL. Topic-related information may be selected and curated from allavailable sources. A source may be reviewed and, as described in moredetail herein, the respective intelligence channel may be updated basedon, for example, crowdsourcing data, research by the subject matterexperts, input from a user, or the like, or any appropriate combinationthereof.

In an example embodiment, an API for each source is determined An APIfor a source may be unique for a respective source. That is, a sourcemay have associated therewith a unique API, or any appropriate versionthereof. A description of each API for each source may be stored, forexample, in a database. A description of each API for each source may bestored, for example, in a database. Source may include individualwebsites, and accordingly, a database may be established to store APIvariations, even when websites may appear to use a common API.

Search criteria may be implemented, at step 32, to facilitatedetermination of a source, or sources, of topic-related information frompotential sources. In an example embodiment, search criteria determinedat step 28 may be implemented at step 32. Search criteria may beimplemented on each prospective source. Search criteria may beimplemented utilizing an appropriate semantic protocol, which mayinclude appropriate Boolean terms and operators, required by arespective source. In an example embodiment, search criteria may beimplemented utilizing an appropriate semantic structure and the digitalformat required by a respective source.

A test search, or searches, to assess the quality of information from aprospective source may be performed at step 34. Search results may beused in an iterative process in which search criteria that control thesearch may be altered until the prospective source produces theappropriate quality results. If a prospective source does not produceappropriate quality results, the prospective source may not be selectedas a source of topic-related information for the intelligence channel.It may be determined, at step 36, if the quality of information from aprospective source is appropriate. If it is determined, at step 36, thatthe quality of the information from a prospective source is notappropriate, the process may proceed to step 32 to refine searchcriteria, and to implement refined search criteria, and proceedtherefrom as described herein. If, after an appropriate attempt torefine search criteria and to adjust the quality of the information froma prospective source, it is not possible to improve the quality to anacceptable level, the prospective source may be remove from a list ofprospective sources (e.g., no longer considered).

Quality initially may be determined during the channel developmentprocess to relate to the relevance of the returned items from a sourceto the topic. Keywords, include and exclude criteria as well as sourcesincluded or excluded may be adjusted to improve quality of anintelligence channel. Intelligence channel quality may be determined bycrowdsourced information developed through the actions of intelligencechannel users in visiting, deleting, or curating the source from theintelligence channel. As each user may rate an item, or delete an itemfrom the user's intelligence channel, aggregate actions by users may beused to determine the quality of a source or particular item to theintelligence channel, as a source frequently visited may be deemed to beof high quality and one frequently curated out of the intelligencechannel by users may be deemed to be of low quality. The qualitydetermination within an intelligence channel may be applied in otherintelligence channels, or not, as appropriate.

If it is determined, at step 36, that the quality of information from aprospective source is appropriate, it may be determined, at step 40, ifanother prospective source is to be tested. If it is determined, at step38, that another prospective source is to be tested, the process mayproceed to step 32 and proceed therefrom as described herein. If it isdetermined, at step 40, that there is not another source to be tested, aseries of semantic protocol/digital format combinations for searchqueries for each source (selected from prospective sources) for a givenchannel topic may be determined at step 42. The semantic structure anddigital format of each search query may be saved for future use. Thefinal semantic structures and digital formats may be available forfusion with other intelligence channels in the development of new and/oradditional intelligence channels.

As described above, with reference to FIG. 1, aggregating, filtering,and quality testing may be performed at step 16. And FIG. 4 is a flowdiagram of an example process for aggregating, filtering, and qualitytesting comprising any appropriate combination and sequence ofimplementing a search query at step 44, aggregating information fromsources at step 46, performing global filtering at step 48, determineinformation that has passed global filtering at step 50, removing asource and/or information that has not passed global filtering at step52, performing channel based filtering at step 54, determine informationthat has passed channel based filtering at step 56, removing a sourceand/or information that has not passed channel based filtering at step58, performing clean up and enhancing formatting at step 60, and storingresults at step 62.

A search query may be implemented at step 44. The search query may beperformed on each topic-related source of the intelligence channel. Eachsource may be queried with a search query comprising appropriate searchparameters based on the user's selected topic. A search query maycomprise search criteria as previously described. Each search query maybe formatted to meet needs of a respective source. In an exampleembodiment, search queries comprising appropriate search parameters maybe provided to each source in a format appropriate for each source.Accordingly, results (e.g., topic-related information) may be receivedfrom each source. For example, TWITTER allows a Boolean search structurewhich groups operations using parentheses to indicate orders ofoperations, so that APPLE AND (iPhone OR iPad or iPod). GOOGLE does notallow the use of parentheses in the semantic structure or to indicate anorder of operations, so the same search must be structured as: “AppleiPhone”, “Apple iPad”, “Apple iPod”.

Results may be aggregated at step 46. Aggregation may requiredata-normalization, as results may vary in their data structure. Sourcesmay provide results in differing data structures or formats. Results maybe mapped to a database based on the particular data structure employedby the source. Results may be aggregated using formatters which processincoming data using data mappings based on the source, and may be storedin a standard data structure. Results may be stored (e.g., in adatabase). As additional searches are conducted, results may be added to(inserted into) stored results. A unique index to an item URL field maybe generated. During storage of results, if an item is determined to bein the URL field, the URL field may be skipped (result not added to, orinserted into, stored results). During storage of results, if an item isdetermined not to be in the URL field, the results are added to thestored results.

Filtering may be performed prior to storage of results. Filtering mayaffect storage of results and aggregation. For example, an influencerblacklist may be performed before the insertion process. For websiteresources, the influencer may be the website itself. For example,huffingtonpost.com, for social media sources, the influencer is theactual user. Entire websites may be banned on domain level or top leveldomain, e.g., .cn, .biz, .casino etc., social media user on user level.Thus, items resulting from these influencer filters may be skipped andnot stored. In an example embodiment, the results from each source maybe combined and incorporated into a data stream. The data stream may befiltered.

The data stream may be globally filtered at step 48. Global filteringmay comprise any appropriate combination of source filtering, duplicatefiltering, noise filtering, or profanity filtering. Source filtering maybe performed at step 48. Source filtering may be utilized to removeirrelevant sources and/or spam. In an example embodiment, sourcefiltering may compare a dictionary of continuously updated domain namesand social media usernames with the article source URL. If there is amatch, the item may be tagged and identified for further review. Ifinformation does not pass source filtering, as determined at step 50,the source and/or information may be removed from the data stream atstep 52. If information does pass source filtering, as determined atstep 50, upon completion of global filtering, the process may proceed tostep 54.

Duplicate filtering may be performed at step 48. Duplicate filtering maycompare individual article headlines and/or articles to identify andremove duplicate articles. In an example embodiment, article may becompared in chronological order to identify and remove duplicatesarticles and/or article that are somewhat close (comprise duplicativeinformation). If duplicates are identified, they may be removed. Ifinformation does not pass duplicate filtering, as determined at step 50,the source and/or information may be removed from the data stream atstep 52. If information does pass duplicate filtering, as determined atstep 50, upon completion of global filtering, the process may proceed tostep 54. For example, many news items may be repeated, and many pressreleases may be printed in multiple publications. To avoid wasting auser's time, these duplicate items may be filtered out by headlineand/or by content.

Noise filtering may be performed at step 48. Noise filtering may removeitems that do not add value, that are irrelevant to the topic, or thelike, or any appropriate combination thereof. In an example embodiment,noise filtering may identify items of limited relevance and/or itemsthat lack substantive content. Noise filtering may remove items oflimited relevance and/or items that lack substantive content from thedata stream. If information does not pass noise filtering, as determinedat step 50, the source and/or information may be removed from the datastream at step 52. If information does pass noise filtering, asdetermined at step 50, upon completion of global filtering, the processmay proceed to step 54.

Profanity filtering may be performed at step 48. Profanity filtering maycompare keywords, phrases, images, video, etc. (e.g., a dictionary) witharticles obtained from a respective source to identity profanity in thearticle. In an example embodiment, the profanity filter (e.g., thedictionary) may be tailored for a particular user. For example, a parentmay tailor the profanity filter to remove any information that theparent may determine to be inappropriate for children. If informationdoes not pass profanity filtering, as determined at step 50, the sourceand/or information may be removed from the data stream at step 52. Ifinformation does pass profanity filtering, as determined at step 50,upon completion of global filtering, the process may proceed to step 54.

Channel based filtering may be performed on the data stream at step 54.In an example embodiment, channel based filtering may comprise anyappropriate combination of language filtering, source filtering, ornoise filtering. As described herein, channel filtering operatesstrictly within a particular intelligence channel, while globalfiltering operates universally. For example, assume an intelligencechannel in which the topic is high performance automobiles. Theintelligence channel may include all manufacturers but an intelligencechannel could be filtered for use by General Motors to remove all othermanufacturers.

Language filtering may be performed at step 54. Intelligence channelsmay be filtered by specific language. In an example embodiment, if alanguage is, or one or more specific languages are, designated, allnondesignated languages, as determined at step 56, may be filtered outat step 58. That is, all articles in a language other than a designatedlanguage, or languages, may be removed from the data stream at step 58.And, upon completion of channel based filtering, the process may proceedto step 60. In an example embodiment, a nondesignated language may betranslated to a designated language.

Source filtering may be performed at step 54. Source filtering may beutilized to remove irrelevant sources and/or spam. In an exampleembodiment, source filtering may compare a dictionary of continuouslyupdated domain names and social media usernames with the article sourceURL. If there is a match, the item may be tagged and identified to beexcluded or for further review. If information does not pass sourcefiltering, as determined at step 56, the source and/or information maybe removed from the data stream at step 58. If information does passsource filtering, as determined at step 56, upon completion of globalfiltering, the process may proceed to step 60.

Noise filtering may be performed at step 54. Noise filtering may removeitems that do not add value, that are irrelevant to the topic, or thelike, or any appropriate combination thereof. In an example embodiment,noise filtering may identify items of limited relevance and/or itemsthat lack substantive content. Noise filtering may remove items oflimited relevance and/or items that lack substantive content from thedata stream. If information does not pass noise filtering, as determinedat step 56, the source and/or information may be removed from the datastream at step 58. If information does pass noise filtering, asdetermined at step 56, upon completion of global filtering, the processmay proceed to step 60.

Profanity filtering may be performed at step 54. Profanity filtering maycompare keywords, phrases, images, video, etc. (e.g., a dictionary) witharticles obtained from a respective source to identity profanity in thearticle. In an example embodiment, the profanity filter (e.g., thedictionary) may be tailored for a particular user. For example, a parentmay tailor the profanity filter to remove any information that theparent may determine to be inappropriate for children. Any articledetermined to contain profanity, may be removed from the data stream. Ifinformation does not pass profanity filtering, as determined at step 56,the source and/or information may be removed from the data stream atstep 58. If information does pass profanity filtering, as determined atstep 56, upon completion of global filtering, the process may proceed tostep 60.

Article cleanup and enhanced formatting may be performed at step 60.Advertisements may be removed from article content. Content may beformatted as needed in order to provide information via an intelligencechannel. Semantic analysis of article content may be performed in orderto select photographs, places, names, companies, addresses, and/or phonenumbers in order to enhance channel definition, generate word clouds,and deliver enhanced content. Natural language processing may beemployed to highlight elements of interest, such as names of persons orentities, monetary values, locations, or the like. Final results may bemay be stored at step 62. In an example embodiment, stored results maybe available for delivery to any user selecting that channel. Storedresults may be available for combination with other channels. Storedresults may be available for updating. In an example embodiment, if aresult is combined and/or updated, a time associated with thecombination and/or update may be stored. Users selecting the channelwithin a predetermined time interval may receive the stored information.A user inquiry received outside of the predetermined time interval maytrigger a new inquiry in order to obtain fresh and timely results.

As described above, with reference to FIG. 1, assembly of informationmay be performed at step 18, topic-related information may be providedat step 20, and information may be updated at step 22. Assembledinformation may be provided via an intelligence channel via a customizedinterface. The interface may be in the form of a hub comprising acustomized dashboard. Results received for each channel ordered by auser may be combined and delivered via the customized hub.

FIG. 5 depicts an example interface 64 comprising a plurality ofintelligence channels 66. Each channel depicted in FIG. 5 represents adifferent intelligence channel. An intelligence channel may be apredetermined (predefined) channel provided by the system, anintelligence channel may be determined by a user, or any appropriatecombination thereof. Thus, the plurality of intelligence channels 66 mayrepresent a plurality of predetermined intelligence channels, aplurality of user-defined intelligence channels, a plurality ofintelligence channels of a user's favorite list, or any appropriatecombination thereof. As depicted in FIG. 5, more intelligence channelsmay be accessed by selecting item 68 labeled as “More Channels.”

The interface 64 may be considered as a hub-like center, or e-store, viawhich a user may access intelligence channels. Channels and news may bedelivered to the user through the hub like interface 64. The hub-likeinterface 64 may be presented in any appropriate manner and/or format.In an example embodiment, the hub-like interface 64 may be presented as“myChannels” page, or the like, which may be accessible by beingdisplayed on all website pages. The hub-like center may be applied tochannels already selected by a user or to additional channels which maybe available.

An intelligence channel as rendered via the interface 64 may compriseany appropriate information that identifies the intelligence channel.For example, an intelligence channel may comprise an icon, text, video,sound, or any appropriate combination thereof that identifies theintelligence channel.

When an intelligence channel is selected, topic-related information maybe provided via the intelligence channel. An intelligence channel may beselected in any appropriate manner. As described herein, selection of arendering on an interface may be accomplished in any appropriate manner,such as, for example, clicking on a rendering, tapping a rendering,touching a rendering, making a gesture over a rendering, making agesture proximate to a, providing an audio command, or the like, or anyappropriate combination thereof. Accordingly, in an example embodiment,an intelligence channel may be selected via the interface 64 by clickingon the rendering of the intelligence channel, by tapping the renderingof the intelligence channel, by touching the rendering of theintelligence channel, by making a gesture over the rendering of theintelligence channel, by making a gesture proximate to the rendering ofthe intelligence channel, by providing an audio command, or the like, orany appropriate combination thereof.

When an intelligence channel is selected, topic-related information maybe provided in real time. FIG. 6 depicts an example illustration of auser friendly, interactive, intelligence channel interface 70. In anexample embodiment, interface 70 may comprise an interactive display ofan apparatus, device, server, computer, or the like. In an exampleembodiment, interface 70 may comprise any appropriate combination of aselectable source portion or region 78, a portion or region allowingselection of more intelligence channels 74, a portion or region allowingsharing of the intelligence channel 76, an adjustable filter portion orregion 80, and dynamically configurable content portion or region 82. Inan example embodiment, the interface 70 may comprise a web page or thelike. The topic may be rendered via the interface 70 as depicted by item72. More channels may be accessed by selecting item 74.

The selectable source region 78 may provide individually selectableaccess to a plurality of sources of topic-related information (e.g.,Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, . . . Source N), wherein eachsource of the plurality of topic-related sources may compriseinformation related to a topic and may be individually selectable. Thecontent region 82 may render topic-related information (e.g., Article 1,Article 2, Article 3, Article 4 . . . ) and provide access to a sourceof the rendered topic-related information. The adjustable filter region80 may provide adjustable filtering of the dynamically configurablecontent region 82, wherein content of the content region 82 may bedynamically modified, in real time, based on the adjustable filtering ofthe filter render in filter region 80.

An intelligence channel may be shared by selecting item 76. Anintelligence channel and/or information provided via an intelligencechannel may be shared via, for example, email, social media, TWITTER,LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE+, a social network, a news article, a testmessage, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof.

Sources 78 of topic-related information may be rendered on the interface70. Each rendering of a source may be selectable in a toggle-likefashion, wherein selection of a rendering of a source may allowinformation to be received from the source, and a subsequent selectionof the source may prevent information from being received from thesource. For example, Source 1 may represent TWITTER, Source 2 mayrepresent GOOGLE, and Source 3 may represent a user-defined source.Selecting Source 1 may allow topic-related information from TWITTER tobe received and rendered in the plurality of articles 82. A subsequentselection of Source 1 may prevent information from being received fromTWITTER, and previously rendered articles from TWITTER would be removedfrom the plurality of articles 82. Similarly, selecting Source 2 mayallow topic-related information from GOOGLE to be received and renderedin the plurality of articles 82. A subsequent selection of Source 1 mayprevent information from being received from GOOGLE, and previouslyrendered articles from GOOGLE would be removed from the plurality ofarticles 82. And, selecting Source 3 may allow topic-related informationfrom the user-defined source to be received and rendered in theplurality of articles 82. A subsequent selection of Source 3 may preventinformation from being received from the user-defined source, andpreviously rendered articles from the user-defined source would beremoved from the plurality of articles 82.

In an example embodiment, filter of topic-related information may beadjustable via the interface 70. For example, slider 80 may function asa filter. Selecting and moving control 86 to the left or to the right ofslider 80 may more or less filter topic-related information based oninfluence of the source and/or relevance of the item. For example,selecting and moving the control 86 to the left end of slider 80 mayallow less influential and/or less relevant topic-related information tobe received. And selecting and moving the control 86 to the right end ofslider 80 may allow only more influential and/or more relevanttopic-related information to be received. Thus, in this examplescenario, the left edge of slider 80 represents less restriction and theright edge of slider 80 represent more restriction. As slider 80 isadjusted via control 86, the information rendered in the plurality ofarticles 82 may accordingly be adjusted.

The functionality invoked via slider 80 may determine a combined rankingof each item by relevance and influence (referred to herein asmyCREOrank). In an example embodiment, the slider 80 scale may allowpositioning from left to right, from a position designated “All” whichreturns all items to the channel to the far right position which may bedesignated “myCREOpicks”, and returns only the most relevant items fromthe most influential sources. Slide 80 may be positioned at intermediatepoints to allow more or less relevant items from more or lessinfluential sources to be shown. The myCREOrank filtering by influenceand relevance may be based on an algorithm which may be applied to allitems in the database which have been initially selected for inclusionin the channel, based on the search for topic-related keywords.

The myCREOrank may be calculated based on influencer online presencemetrics and/or channel context. For influencer online presence metrics(Influencer), metrics may be obtained from social networks and/orvarious third party services for each influencer, or the like.Influencer metrics may vary depending on Influencer type—a web site or asocial network user. Example Influencer metrics may includeTWITTER—number of posts user has made, number of followers, retweetsetc., YOUTUBE—number of user videos, number of views each video has got,average number of views etc., Blog—number of posts, number of follower,number of reposts, links etc. , Web page—Google Page rank, or the like,or any appropriate combination thereof.

To compare different Influencer metrics, Influencer metrics may beweighted based on various characteristics and returned as Score (0-100).The weighting methodology may be based on academic research, otherpublications, information available online, or the like, or anyappropriate combination thereof. The weighting methodology may besubject to adjustment based on crowd-sourced information (i.e., theactions of users of the channel such as views and curation of items) andrefinement. Thus, Score may represent online popularity.

Channel context (Relevance) may be indicative of highly ranked itemsrelated closely to the channel topic. A post by a highly rankedinfluencer may not be as relevant to a particular channel as a post froma generally less highly ranked influencer. Therefore, a relevance scoremay be determined by considering such items as the number of mentions oftopic-related keywords in an item, a ratio of topic-related keywords toother words in the item, the number of mentions of topic-relatedkeywords in the item headline, the ratio of topic-related keywords toother words in the headline, the number of views or Page rank of theitem, and other factors. Relevance may consider crowd-sourced data suchas views and curation by users of a particular channel on particularitems or items sourced from particular sources or authors.

In an example embodiment, slider 80 may filter items returned by asearch for a topic by utilizing an algorithm based on a weighted scalewhich may consider the perceived reliability of the source (e.g., theNew York Times or Wall Street Journal would be deemed more reliable thanan anonymous TWITTER™ post) and the authority of the author, which maybe determined based on the number of previous items posted by theauthor. The slider 80 may adjust the weighting of the algorithm based oncrowd-sourced data as some items are liked, not liked, curated out,recommended to be deleted, or viewed, or the like.

Topic-related information may be provided via a rendering of theplurality of articles 82. An article may be rendered in any appropriatemanner. In an example embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 6, a rendering ofan article may comprise an icon and/or a description. Selection of anarticle may provide a feed to topic-related information form thearticle. For example, article 1 may provide a link to a YOUTUBE video.Selection of article 1 may result in a rendering of the YOUTUBE video.The rendering of the YOUTUBE video may be filtered as described above.The description of the article may comprise any appropriate description.For example, as depicted in FIG. 6, the description article may comprisea title of the article, and a time and a description of the source. Forexample, in accordance with the foregoing example scenario, thedescription may comprise a title of the YOUTUBE video, the time thevideo was obtained, and the name of the source (i.e., YOUTUBE).

The interface 70 may provide a mechanism for updating an intelligencechannel via selection of item 84, depicted as “Curate” in FIG. 6.Selection of item 84 may allow an intelligence channel to be updated inany appropriate manner. For example, selection of item 84 may provide alink to a web page, or the like, wherein the intelligence channel may beupdated, by providing a source, removing a source, combining source,adjusting filtering, adjusting filtering criteria, or the like, or anyappropriate combination thereof.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example interface for providing access to aplurality of intelligence channels. As shown in FIG. 7, eachintelligence channel may be represented by an icon and/or a descriptionof the intelligence channel. For example, intelligence channel 86 isdepicted by a graphic logo and textual description “Incubators,”indicating the topic of the intelligence channel. Selection ofintelligence channel 86 may provide link to an interface that providedtopic related information.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example interface that provides topic relatedinformation pertaining to incubators. Labels 78, 80, 82, and 86 on FIG.8 correspond to labels 78, 80, 82, and 86 of FIG. 6, respectively, toidentify items that function as previously described.

Referring again to FIG. 1, an intelligence channel may be updated atstep 22 in any appropriate manner. As previously described, anintelligence channel may be updated based on filtering. An intelligencechannel may be updated in an iterative fashion (self-learning closedloop) wherein problems found from quality testing and user experiencemay be fed back to improve channel development and refine the channel.This manner of updating may occur continuously, periodically,aperiodically, based on the occurrence of an event, or any appropriatecombination thereof. In an example embodiment, an intelligence channelmay be updated based on a user of an intelligence channel designatingunwanted channels or designate channels to be combined or fused.

Crowdsourcing may be utilized to update an intelligence channel. Anintelligence channel and/or information provided by an intelligencechannel may be distributed and comments and/or suggestions may bereceived. The comments and/or suggests (e.g., clicks on a like ordislike button, clicks to remove an article, clicks through to reviewthe article, etc.) may be utilized to update an intelligence channel.For example, an intelligence channel and/or information provided by anintelligence channel may be provided via for example, email, socialmedia, TWITTER, LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, GOOGLE+, a social network,news articles, or the like, or any appropriate combination thereof.Recipients thereof may “like” a channel, article, source, or the like. Arecipient thereof may request that a channel, article, source, or thelike, be removed. This type of feedback may be utilized to update anintelligence channel. In an example embodiment, a database or the like,of such feedback may be generated and utilized for subsequent updates.

FIG. 9 is an example functional block diagram for developing anintelligence channel. Available sources 90 may be provided to multiplefunctional paths, depicted in FIG. 9 as columns 91, 93, and 95. Eachfunctional path may perform operations on a specific source. A specificsource may comprise any appropriate source. For example specific source92 may represent TWITTER, GOOGLE, GOOGLE NEWS, GOOGLE BLOGS, YOUTUBE,FACEBOOK, BING, YAHOO, WIKIPEDIA, a direct feed, or the like. Note,functional components are labeled with numbers only in functional path91 for the sake of simplicity. However, functions performed infunctional path 91 may be performed in other functional paths (e.g. 93,95) in a similar manner on the respective specific source of thefunctional path.

A specific source may be searched for keywords via a custom search atfunctional block 94. The custom search may be customized for thespecific source based on the topic and/or by the user. For example, acustom search on TWITTER may comprise the URL (Uniform Resource Locator)https://twitter.com/search-advanced, a custom search on GOOGLE NEWS maycomprise the URL http://news.google.com, a custom search on GOOGLE BLOGSmay comprise the URL http://blogsearch.google.com, a custom search onYOUTUBE may comprise the URL http:www.youtube.com, a custom search onFACEBOOK may search a company or the like FACEBOOK page, or a customsearch for a direct feed (e.g., RSS feed) may comprise searching fortopic-related information via the direct feed, company web sites, newsfeeds, or the like.

Custom search phrases for topic related information using specificsource search parameters may by generated at function block 96. Forexample, TWITTER may be searched using TWITTER specific searchparameters and semantic structure, GOOGLE NEWS may be searched usingGOOGLE specific search parameters and semantic structure, GOOGLE BLOGSmay be searched using GOOGLE BLOGS specific search parameters andsemantic structure, YOUTUBE may be searched using YOUTUBE specificparameters and semantic structure, or FACEBOOK may be searched using aFACEBOOK ID, user name, other FACEBOOK appropriate specific parametersand semantic structure, or the like.

Custom test phrases may be tested at functional block 98. Custom testphrases may be tested on the respective specific source utilizing anappropriate URL, and semantic structure for the specific source. Forexample, a custom phrase for TWITTER may be tested by using the URLhttps://twitter.com/search-advanced, a custom phrase for GOOGLE NEWS maybe tested by using the URL http://news.google.com, a custom phrase forGOOGLE BLOGS may be tested by using the URLhttp://blogsearch.google.com, a custom phrase for YOUTUBE may be testedby using the URL http:www.youtube.com/rss/search/[SEARCH], or a customphrase for FACEBOOK may be tested by using the URLhttps://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id, or the like.

Search phrases may be encoded at functional block 100. Search phraseencoding may handle special characters that are not allowed in URLs,which are limited to the ASCII character set and cannot contain spaces.As terms often contain characters outside the ASCII character set orspaces, the URL may be converted to a valid ASCII format. URL encodingmay replace non ASCII characters with a “%” followed by two hexadecimaldigits. For example, the normal text Michelle Günter may be encoded asMichelle%20G%C3%BCnter Encoded search phrases may be tested at on customfeed at functional block 102. And custom feeds and search phrased may bestored at functional block 104.

FIG. 10 is an example block diagram of a system 106 for generating anintelligence channel and providing information via an intelligencechannel. In an example embodiment, the system 106 may comprise anapplication layer, 110, a database layer 112, and a web layer 114. Theapplication layer 110 may comprise any appropriate combination of anupdates processor 116 and a data processor 118. The database layer 112may comprise any appropriate combination of a database 120 and a searchengine 122. The web layer 114 may comprise any appropriate combinationof an administration interface 124 and a user interface 126, each ofwhich may be coupled to a network 128.

In an example embodiment, the database 120 may be a mongo db, an opensource program, and open sourced tools. The data processor 118 maygenerate the search parameters which may be implemented through thesearch engine, which may be GOOGLE or another commercially availablesearch engine. The data processor handles the raw item data processing,analysis and enrichment, and interacts with the database by requestingraw items an storing enriched items to the database. The search enginedelivers filtered keyword results and interacts with the database byrequesting raw data and with the user interface by returning filtereddata. The administration interface 124 may be utilized to define andrefine the search parameters and keywords, includes and excludes, whichoperate through the search engine to generate results delivered to thedatabase which are delivered to users through the user interface. Theupdates processor 118 may repeat the process periodically to update allresults by scheduling source updates, requesting load balancing,requesting search preparation and execution, data aggregation, and lowlevel filtering. The database 120 may track each article returned asassociated with a search during the update process. The database 120also may maintain all user information for purposes including paymentprocessing and history, data mining, and crowd-sourced article or sourceratings and determinations. The database is where all data is stored,including all searches, items retrieved, user information, including allclicks, likes, dislikes, curations, click-throughs, click-throughdestinations, curation information, billing information and the like.All other components interact with the database by requesting data forprocessing or display and sending data for storage.

FIG. 11 is an example block diagram of the updates processor 116. In anexample embodiment, the updates processor 116 may comprise anyappropriate combination of a load balancer 130, a request manager 132, ametadata extractor 138, data filters 140, a data normalizer 142, aprocessor 144, a query boulder 134, a data aggregator 146. The updatesprocessor schedules source updates and requests load balancing, requestpreparation and execution, data aggregation, and low level filtering.The updates processor interacts with the database by requesting dataabout channels and sources and storing raw items in the database. Thequery builder 134 and the data aggregator may be in communications withsources 136, which a may be in communications with a network 148.

The system may be designed to be horizontally scalable. The database andsearch engine(s) may be scaled as demand requires by adding additionalservers (nodes). The updates processor and data processor may also bescaled horizontally by adding additional servers (nodes), provided thateach server (node) acts as an individual instance of the updatesprocessor and data processor. Load balancing is provided on a systemdatabase level.

In an example embodiment, the load balancer 130 may optimize usage ofhardware and communications resources to minimize processing time andallow multiple searches to proceed simultaneously to reduce responsetime. The request manager 132 may interact with the load balancer 130 sorequests from sources or to search engines are efficiently managed. Themetadata extractor 138 may identify the appropriate metadata foridentifying and indexing each article within the database, and mayidentify API versions and settings associated with particular sources.Data filters 140 may be used to remove irrelevant items identifiedthrough exclude statements, as including profanity or as duplicates. Thequery builder 134 may comprise a listing of the defining sources,keywords, includes, excludes, and filters for an intelligence channel.The data aggregator 146 may assemble data for delivery to the userthrough the user interface and filters duplicates.

FIG. 12 is an example block diagram of the data processor 118. In anexample embodiment, the data processor 118 may comprise any appropriatecombination of a load balancer 150, a processor 152, a miscellaneoushelper 154, a ranking algorithm processor 156, an influencer rankingprocessor 158, a content ranking processor 160, a content enrichmentprocessor 162, a content extraction processor 164, an images, video,etc. processor 166, a content analysis processor 168, a languagedetection processor 170, and a nature language processing (NLP)processor 172. The load balancer may monitor available request limitsand scheduling requests. The ranking algorithm processor may comprise asystem structural unit including “CREOrank”, which may calculate theinfluence of a source based on prior instances of the source items andmay be crowd-sourced, and content ranking, which may calculate itemcontent relevance based on characteristics such as headline length,ration of keywords/stopwords to all words in item, occurrence of#hashtags and @usernames in the headline or item, content length,occurrence of keywords/stopwords in content, and the like. A contentenrichment processor is a system structural unit which may extractcontent from text to provide structured data and extracts media elements(images, video, sound, etc.) from text. The content analysis module is asystem structural element that includes language detection, which mayinclude or exclude an item based on its language (French, German,English, Mandarin, Hebrew etc.) and natural language processing, whichmay detect and highlight certain types of data elements such as names ofindividuals, names of entities monetary values, times or dates or thelike.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example apparatus 180 that may beutilized to implement and/or facilitate an intelligence channel asdescribed herein. The apparatus 180 may comprise hardware or acombination of hardware and software. The apparatus 180 depicted in FIG.13 may represent any appropriate apparatus, device, processor, server, agateway, a node, a database, or the like, or any appropriate combinationthereof. For example, the apparatus 180 may comprise an apparatus, adevice, a processor, a server, a gateway, a node, a database, theupdates processor 116, the data processor 118, the database 120, thesearch engine 122, the administration interface 124, the user interface126, each of which may be coupled to a network 128, the load balancer130, the request manager 132, the metadata extractor 138, the datafilters 140, the data normalizer 142, the processor 144, the queryboulder 134, the data aggregator 146, or the like, or any appropriatecombination thereof. It is emphasized that the block diagram depicted inFIG. 13 is exemplary and not intended to imply a specific implementationor configuration. Thus, the apparatus 180 may be implemented in a singleapparatus or multiple apparatuses (e.g., single server or multipleservers, single gateway or multiple gateways, single apparatus ormultiple apparatuses, single node or multiple nodes, single processor ormultiple processors, single database or multiple databases, singledevice or multiple devices, etc.). Multiple apparatuses may bedistributed or centrally located. Multiple apparatuses may communicatewirelessly, via hard wire, or any appropriate combination thereof.

In an example embodiment, apparatus 180 may comprise a processor andmemory coupled to the processor. The memory may comprise executableinstructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor toeffectuate operations associated with an intelligence channel asdescribed herein. As evident from the herein description apparatus 180is not to be construed as software per se.

In an example configuration, apparatus 180 may comprise a processingportion 182, a memory portion 184, and an input/output portion 186. Theprocessing portion 182, memory portion 184, and input/output portion 186may be coupled together (coupling not shown in FIG. 13) to allowcommunications therebetween. Each portion of the apparatus 180 maycomprise circuitry for performing functions associated with anintelligence as described herein. Thus, each portion may comprisehardware, or a combination of hardware and software. Accordingly, eachportion of the apparatus 180 is not to be construed as software per se.That is, processing portion 182 is not to be construed as software perse. Memory portion 184 is not to be construed as software per se.Input/output portion 186 is not to be construed as software per se.Volatile memory portion 188 is not to be construed as software per se.Non-volatile memory portion 190 is not to be construed as software perse. Removal storage portion 192 is not to be construed as software perse. Non-removal storage portion 194 is not to be construed as softwareper se. Input device(s) portion 196 is not to be construed as softwareper se. Input device(s) portion 198 is not to be construed as softwareper se. And communication connection(s) portion 200 is not to beconstrued as software per se. Each portion of apparatus 180 may compriseany appropriate configuration of hardware and software as would beascertainable by those of skill in the art to perform respectivefunctions of an intelligence channel

The input/output portion 186 may be capable of receiving and/orproviding information from/to a communications device and/or otherapparatuses configured to generate and/or utilize an intelligencechannel as described herein. For example, the input/output portion 186may include a wireless communications (e.g., 2.5G/3G/4G/GPS) card. Theinput/output portion 186 may be capable of receiving and/or sendingvideo information, audio information, control information, imageinformation, data, or any combination thereof. In an example embodiment,the input/output portion 186 may be capable of receiving and/or sendinginformation to determine a location of the apparatus 180 and/or acommunications device. In an example configuration, the input\outputportion 186 may comprise a GPS receiver. In an example configuration,the apparatus 180 may determine its own geographical location and/or thegeographical location of a communications device through any type oflocation determination system including, for example, the GlobalPositioning System (GPS), assisted GPS (A-GPS), time difference ofarrival calculations, configured constant location (in the case ofnon-moving devices), any combination thereof, or any other appropriatemeans. In various configurations, the input/output portion 186 mayreceive and/or provide information via any appropriate means, such as,for example, optical means (e.g., infrared), electromagnetic means(e.g., RF, WI-FI, BLUETOOTH, ZIGBEE, etc.), acoustic means (e.g.,speaker, microphone, ultrasonic receiver, ultrasonic transmitter), or acombination thereof. In an example configuration, the input/outputportion may comprise a WIFI finder, a two way GPS chipset or equivalent,or the like, or a combination thereof.

The processing portion 182 may be capable of performing functionsassociated with an intelligence channel as described herein. In anexample embodiment, the processing portion 182 may be capable of, inconjunction with any other portion of the apparatus 180, installing anapplication for an intelligence channel as described herein.

In a basic configuration, the apparatus 180 may include at least onememory portion 184. The memory portion 184 may comprise a storage mediumhaving a concrete, tangible, physical structure. Thus, the memoryportion 184, as well as any computer-readable storage medium describedherein, is not to be construed as a transient signal. The memory portion184, as well as any computer-readable storage medium described herein,is not to be construed as a propagating signal. The memory portion 184,as well as any computer-readable storage medium described herein, is tobe construed as an article of manufacture. The memory portion 184 maystore any information utilized in conjunction with an intelligencechannel as described herein. Depending upon the exact configuration andtype of processor, the memory portion 184 may be volatile 188 (such assome types of RAM), non-volatile 190 (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.),or a combination thereof. The apparatus 180 may include additionalstorage (e.g., removable storage 192 and/or non-removable storage 194)such as, for example, tape, flash memory, smart cards, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,universal serial bus (USB) compatible memory, or any other medium whichcan be used to store information and which can be accessed by theapparatus 180.

The apparatus 180 also may contain communications connection(s) 200 thatallow the apparatus 180 to communicate with other apparatuses, devices,network entities, or the like. A communications connection(s) maycomprise communication media. Communication media may typically embodycomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules orother data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or othertransport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. By wayof example, and not limitation, communication media may include wiredmedia such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wirelessmedia such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media. The termcomputer readable media as used herein includes both storage media andcommunication media. The apparatus 180 also may include input device(s)196 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch inputdevice, etc. Output device(s) 198 such as a display, speakers, printer,etc. also may be included.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example device 220 that may be utilizedto generate and/or implement an intelligence channel as describedherein. The device 220 may comprise and/or be incorporated into anyappropriate device, examples of which may include, a mobile device, amobile communications device, a cellular phone, a portable computingdevice, such as a laptop, a personal digital assistant (“PDA”), aportable phone (e.g., a cell phone or the like, a smart phone, a videophone), a portable email device, a portable gaming device, a TV, a DVDplayer, portable media player, (e.g., a portable music player, such asan MP3 player, a Walkman, etc.), a portable navigation device (e.g., GPScompatible device, A-GPS compatible device, etc.), or a combinationthereof. The device 220 can include devices that are not typicallythought of as portable, such as, for example, a public computing device,a navigation device installed in-vehicle, a set top box, or the like.The mobile device 220 can include non-conventional computing devices,such as, for example, a kitchen appliance, a motor vehicle control(e.g., steering wheel), etc., or the like. As evident from the hereindescription device 220 is not to be construed as software per se.

The device 220 may include any appropriate device, mechanism, software,and/or hardware for facilitating and/or implementing an intelligencechannel as described herein. In an example embodiment, the ability togenerate and/or implement an intelligence channel is a feature of thedevice 220 that may be turned on and off. Thus, in an exampleembodiment, an owner and/or user of the device 220 may opt-in or opt-outof this capability.

In an example embodiment, the device 220 may comprise a processor andmemory coupled to the processor. The memory may comprise executableinstructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor toeffectuate operations associated with an intelligence channel asdescribed herein.

In an example configuration, the device 220 may comprise a processingportion 222, a memory portion 224, an input/output portion 226, and auser interface (UI) portion 228. Each portion of the device 220 maycomprise circuitry for performing functions associated with eachrespective portion. Thus, each portion may comprise hardware, or acombination of hardware and software. Accordingly, each portion of thedevice 220 is not to be construed as software per se. That is,processing portion 222 is not to be construed as software per se. Memoryportion 224 is not to be construed as software per se. Input/outputportion 226 is not to be construed as software per se. And userinterface portion 228 is not to be construed as software per se. Eachportion of device 220 may comprise any appropriate configuration ofhardware and software as would be ascertainable by those of skill in theart to perform respective functions of an intelligence channel asdescribed herein. It is emphasized that the block diagram depiction ofdevice 220 is exemplary and not intended to imply a specificimplementation and/or configuration. For example, in an exampleconfiguration, the device 220 may comprise a cellular communicationstechnology and the processing portion 222 and/or the memory portion 224may be implemented, in part or in total, on a subscriber identity module(SIM) of the device 220. In another example configuration, the device220 may comprise a laptop computer and/or tablet device (laptop/tablet).The laptop/tablet may include a SIM, and various portions of theprocessing portion 222 and/or the memory portion 224 may be implementedon the SIM, on the laptop/tablet other than the SIM, or any combinationthereof.

The processing portion 222, memory portion 224, and input/output portion226 may be coupled together to allow communications therebetween. Invarious embodiments, the input/output portion 226 may comprise areceiver of the device 220, a transmitter of the device 220, or acombination thereof. The input/output portion 226 may be capable ofreceiving and/or providing information pertaining to an intelligencechannel as described herein. In various configurations, the input/outputportion 226 may receive and/or provide information via any appropriatemeans, such as, for example, optical means (e.g., infrared),electromagnetic means (e.g., RF, WI-FI, BLUETOOTH, ZIGBEE, etc.),acoustic means (e.g., speaker, microphone, ultrasonic receiver,ultrasonic transmitter), or any appropriate combination thereof.

The processing portion 222 may be capable of performing functionspertaining to an intelligence channel as described herein. In a basicconfiguration, the device 220 may include at least one memory portion224. The memory portion 224 may comprise a storage medium having aconcrete, tangible, physical structure. Thus, the memory portion 224, aswell as any computer-readable storage medium described herein, is not tobe construed as a transient signal. Further, the memory portion 224, aswell as any computer-readable storage medium described herein, is not tobe construed as a propagating signal. The memory portion 224, as well asany computer-readable storage medium described herein, is to beconstrued as an article of manufacture. The memory portion 224 may storeany information utilized in conjunction with an intelligence channel asdescribed herein. Depending upon the exact configuration and type ofprocessor, the memory portion 224 may be volatile (such as some types ofRAM), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.), or a combinationthereof. The mobile device 220 may include additional storage (e.g.,removable storage and/or non-removable storage) such as, for example,tape, flash memory, smart cards, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD)or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magneticdisk storage or other magnetic storage devices, universal serial bus(USB) compatible memory, or any other medium which can be used to storeinformation and which can be accessed by the mobile device 220.

The device 220 also may contain a user interface (UI) portion 228allowing a user to communicate with the device 220. The UI portion 228may be capable of rendering any information utilized in conjunction withan intelligence channel as described herein. The UI portion 228 mayprovide the ability to control the device 220, via, for example,buttons, soft keys, voice actuated controls, a touch screen, movement ofthe mobile device 220, visual cues (e.g., moving a hand in front of acamera on the mobile device 220), or the like. The UI portion 228 mayprovide visual information (e.g., via a display), audio information(e.g., via speaker), mechanically (e.g., via a vibrating mechanism), ora combination thereof. In various configurations, the UI portion 228 maycomprise a display, a touch screen, a keyboard, an accelerometer, amotion detector, a speaker, a microphone, a camera, a tilt sensor, orany combination thereof. The UI portion 228 may comprise means forinputting biometric information, such as, for example, fingerprintinformation, retinal information, voice information, and/or facialcharacteristic information.

The UI portion 228 may include a display for displaying multimedia suchas, for example, application graphical user interfaces (GUIs), text,images, video, telephony functions such as Caller ID data, setupfunctions, menus, music, metadata, messages, wallpaper, graphics,Internet content, device status, preferences settings, map and locationdata, routes and other directions, points of interest (POI), and thelike.

In some embodiments, the UI portion may comprise a user interface (UI)application. The UI application may interface with a client or operatingsystem (OS) to, for example, facilitate user interaction with devicefunctionality and data. The UI application may aid a user in enteringmessage content, viewing received messages, answering/initiating calls,entering/deleting data, entering and setting user IDs and passwords,configuring settings, manipulating content and/or settings, interactingwith other applications, or the like, and may aid the user in inputtingselections associated with an intelligence channel as described herein.

In accordance with the herein description of intelligence channels, anintelligence channel may be utilized in various applications. In variousexample embodiments, an intelligence channel may comprise compilationsor fusions of related topics into a single channel. The intelligencechannel may comprise channels for a topic as a single “thought” channelencompassing a variety of opinions and ideas. An intelligence channelmay comprise a “pack” of individual intelligence channels directed totopics in selected market segments, regions, and other areas ofinterest. The mechanisms for interfacing with intelligence channels mayprovide a user to search within an intelligence channel for subtopics ofinterest, and to generate intelligence channels directed to thesubtopics. A user may define a private intelligence channel that isavailable to only designated recipients. Locations, addresses, or thelike, from information provided via an intelligence channel may beautomatically inserted into a map (e.g., GOOGLE MAPS, geocodingutilities, etc.). Automatic translation of information provided via anintelligence channel may be accomplished. A word cloud display may begenerated from information provided via an intelligence channel for usein a presentation, display, posting, or the like. In an exampleembodiment, a word cloud display is a visualization of the frequency ofuse of the words in a document, in which the size of the font for eachword is related to its frequency or use. Words may be scrambled and maybe shown as in a cloud.

In various example embodiments, use of an intelligence channel may bemonitored to observe user behavior to predict events that may be ofinterest to a user, to provide alerts that may be applicable to a user,to provide information of interest to a user, to generate a customintelligence channel, to combine intelligence channels, or anyappropriate combination thereof. A data feed may be provided (e.g., RSS,or other data feeds) comprising user requested intelligence channels foruse on websites and displays, and potentially customized to employ usergraphic formats, and user system feed requirements. Information providedvia an intelligence channel may be viewed via any appropriate mechanism,such as, for example, offline viewing, standard readers, GOOGLE READER,KINDLE, or the like.

While an intelligence channel has been described in connection with thevarious embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understood thatother similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions maybe made to the described embodiments of an intelligence channel withoutdeviating therefrom. For example, one skilled in the art will recognizethat embodiments and application of an intelligence channel as describedin the instant application may apply to any environment, whether wiredor wireless, and may be applied to any number of such devices connectedvia a communications network and interacting across the network.Therefore, an intelligence channel as described herein should not belimited to any single embodiment, but rather should be construed inbreadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method comprising: determining a plurality ofsources; determining a plurality of topic-related search parameters foreach source of the plurality of sources, wherein each search parameterof the plurality of topic-related search parameters is related to atopic; searching the plurality of sources, utilizing the determinedtopic-related search parameters, for topic-related information, whereintopic-related information is related to the topic; selecting from theplurality of sources, based on the searching, a topic-related source,wherein the topic-related source comprises information related to thetopic; filtering topic-related information from the selectedtopic-related source for relevance to the topic; and providing thefiltered topic-related information via an interactive interface.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: filtering the topic-relatedinformation from the selected topic-related source based on influence.3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: filtering thetopic-related information from the selected topic-related source basedon relevance.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: filteringthe topic-related information from the selected topic-related source toremove profanity.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:filtering the topic-related information from the selected topic-relatedsource to remove an advertisement.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: filtering the topic-related information from the selectedtopic-related source based on language.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising: filtering the topic-related information from theselected topic-related source to remove duplicative information.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: respectively formatting thedetermined topic-related search parameters in accordance with eachsources of the plurality of sources; and searching the each source ofthe plurality of sources, utilizing the respectively formatteddetermined topic-related search parameters.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising: updating the plurality of topic-related searchparameters based on crowdsourcing data.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining the topic based on predictive datamining.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering is adjustable,in real time, via the interactive interface.
 12. An apparatuscomprising: a processor; and memory coupled to the processor, the memorycomprising executable instructions that when executed by the processorcause the processor to effectuate operations comprising: determining aplurality of sources; determining a plurality of topic-related searchparameters for each source of the plurality of sources, wherein eachsearch parameter of the plurality of topic-related search parameters isrelated to a topic; searching the plurality of sources, utilizing thedetermined topic-related search parameters, for topic-relatedinformation, wherein topic-related information is related to the topic;selecting from the plurality of sources, based on the searching, atopic-related source, wherein the topic-related source comprisesinformation related to the topic; filtering topic-related informationfrom the selected topic-related source for relevance to the topic; andproviding the filtered topic-related information via an interactiveinterface.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, the operations furthercomprising: filtering the topic-related information from the selectedtopic-related source based on at least one of: influence; relevance; orlanguage.
 14. The apparatus of claim 12, the operations furthercomprising: filtering the topic-related information from the selectedtopic-related source to remove at least one of: profanity; anadvertisement; duplicative information.
 15. The apparatus of claim 12,the operations further comprising: respectively formatting thedetermined topic-related search parameters in accordance with eachsources of the plurality of sources; and searching the each source ofthe plurality of sources, utilizing the respectively formatteddetermined topic-related search parameters.
 16. The apparatus of claim12, the operations further comprising: updating the plurality oftopic-related search parameters based on crowdsourcing data.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 12, the operations further comprising: determiningthe topic based on predictive data mining.
 18. The apparatus of claim12, wherein the filtering is adjustable, in real time, via theinteractive interface.
 19. A computer readable storage medium comprisingexecutable instructions that when executed by a processor cause theprocessor to effectuate operations comprising: determining a pluralityof sources; determining a plurality of topic-related search parametersfor each source of the plurality of sources, wherein each searchparameter of the plurality of topic-related search parameters is relatedto a topic; searching the plurality of sources, utilizing the determinedtopic-related search parameters, for topic-related information, whereintopic-related information is related to the topic; selecting from theplurality of sources, based on the searching, a topic-related source,wherein the topic-related source comprises information related to thetopic; filtering topic-related information from the selectedtopic-related source for relevance to the topic; and providing thefiltered topic-related information via an interactive interface.
 20. Thecomputer readable storage medium of claim 19, the operations furthercomprising: filtering the topic-related information from the selectedtopic-related source based on at least one of: influence; relevance; orlanguage.
 21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, theoperations further comprising: filtering the topic-related informationfrom the selected topic-related source to remove at least one of:profanity; an advertisement; duplicative information.
 22. The computerreadable storage medium of claim 19, the operations further comprising:respectively formatting the determined topic-related search parametersin accordance with each sources of the plurality of sources; andsearching the each source of the plurality of sources, utilizing therespectively formatted determined topic-related search parameters. 23.The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, the operations furthercomprising: updating the plurality of topic-related search parametersbased on crowdsourcing data.
 24. The computer readable storage medium ofclaim 19, the operations further comprising: determining the topic basedon predictive data mining.
 25. The computer readable storage medium ofclaim 19, wherein the filtering is adjustable, in real time, via theinteractive interface.
 26. An interactive display, comprising: aselectable source region providing individually selectable access to aplurality of sources of topic-related information, wherein each sourceof the plurality of topic-related sources: comprises information relatedto a topic; and is individually selectable; a content region, thecontent region rendering topic-related information and providing accessto a source of the rendered topic-related information; and an adjustablefilter region providing adjustable filtering of the content region,wherein content of the content region is dynamically modified, in realtime, based on the adjustable filtering.